Days of Red-White Paradise
by SeekerOfPearl
Summary: A Reimu-centric collection of drabbles, each 500 words long. Multiple pairings, no continuity.
1. Gravity

_Gravity_

* * *

Her footsteps are heavy, because she has no need to sneak; the set of her jaw dissuades all interruptions as she thunders up the steps to the Moriya Shrine. Fairies cluster overhead, watching as closely as they dare.

"Welcome, Reimu. To what do we owe the pleasure?" Kanako asks as the shrine maiden clambers up the last of the steps. "Very few humans get a welcoming committee of gods, you know. But you are quite a rare and special guest."

Suwako and Sanae step forward, presenting an image of solidarity; neither of them labours under the illusion that Kanako's flattery will defuse the situation.

"Kochiya. You know what this is about," Reimu growls. Her sandals are muddy. Her feet are sore.

"What a tone to take towards a god," Suwako says, her voice playful. "Although it's that attitude that makes believers come to our shrine instead of yours, so I guess we ought to be grateful."

"Don't antagonise our benefactor, Suwako," Kanako rebuffs her. "What seems to be the problem? Sanae?"

"Ahaha," Sanae giggles, not a little nervously. "Well, the last time I saw her, I thought that, as _friends_ and _allies_ , we might take a little trip into the human village together for some shopping."

"And then what?"

"I refused," Reimu says bluntly. "I don't have money and I don't need anything. It's a waste of energy."

"So," Sanae continues, cautiously, "in the interest of promoting friendly relations, I gave her a _reason_ to go shopping."

"She stole from me!" Reimu snaps, eyes flashing.

"I... borrowed. Did you walk all the way here, Reimu? Oh, but I suppose you can't fly without it," Sanae says, slowly lifting off. "Your underwear, that is."

Reimu's face is red, but it's difficult to tell whether it's rage or embarrassment. "I'll take you down, Sanae."

The maiden of the Moriya Shrine scoffs. "From all the way down there? We're on the Youkai Mountain, Reimu. If you think you can lift off without one of those birdbrained photographers swooping in for a scoop, be my guest."

"And even if you did," Kanako adds, "It'd be three against one. I can't sit back while you invade our shrine and fight our priestess, I'm afraid."

"Three on one, is it? I can't fly," Reimu replies, an icy grin playing around her lips. "But at least I can count. Right, _Yukari?_ "

The air turns icy as Yukari emerges from a gap in the sky, yawning. Suika totters through in her wake; with a lazy wave of her hand, Sanae falls from the sky like a lead weight.

"I heard you were bullying my shrine maiden," Yukari says, with a beatific smile.

"I heard there was gonna be a fight," the oni adds with a grin.

Reimu takes a single step towards the landbound wind priestess, and smiles. "You know what, Sanae? I think I will go shopping with you after this. Because from the look on your face, I'm not the only one who needs new underwear."

* * *

 _A/N: I wanted to a do a Reimu centric collection of drabbles that are 500 words each (without the title and author's notes, of course). I'm not really sure how to characterise Reimu yet, but I suppose that's what the practice is for. Standard disclaimer applies: I don't own the setting or characters of Touhou. I'll be updating every now and then, whenever I have one finished; I'm not on a strict schedule. I hope you can derive some enjoyment from my flubs._

 _This one was originally going to be more serious, but turned into a doofy thing with a bad punchline. I would like to see a Hakurei vs Moriya team fight though. I cut a lot of cruft out to fit in the word limit._


	2. Brevity

_Brevity_

* * *

"Evenings like these just don't last long enough."

It's an unguarded statement, from the mouth of a vampire with rather too much alcohol in her belly. But it hits the party like an anvil; smiles disappear, chatter ceases, and a whole room of aged beings is reminded that the current state of peace is an oddity in the history of Gensokyo.

"You only think that because you drink too much to remember them," Reimu grumbles. She's aware how many eyes are following her now, as if she'll wither away any second. The atmosphere of the party wobbles. There's too much thought weighing it down. It's Alice who breaks the silence. She turns to the witch next to her and asks quietly, but not quietly enough:

"Say, Marisa. How old are you?"

"My, my, Alice. You ought to know that's not a question you can ask a lady," Sakuya says, swooping in. Her smile is practised, comforting, unknowable. "Even if they're only nominally a lady, like Marisa."

There's a moment of silence before one of the drunker youkai giggles. The bubble breaks, and Sakuya is away, a tray of cookies in one hand and a smile on her lips. She darts between the revellers, sowing the seeds of conversation; she has ceased to be a partygoer and is once again the head maid, concerned only with the welfare of the guests.

"This is the wrong time of year for that kind of discussion. If only it were cherry blossom season," she says later, joining Reimu and Marisa on the veranda. Her mistress's faux pas has been set aside; her job is over, for the moment.

"What're ya talking about, ze?"

"It would have fit the theme of 'ephemeral beauty.' You'll have to forgive my mistress. Due to various factors, this kind of thing weighs on her mind a little."

Marisa snorts. Reimu leans back, and looks out towards a waxing moon.

"That said, Reimu, you do have... _options_ , in that regard. You could borrow Ibaraki's medicine box and become an oni. Speaking of Ibaraki, you'd make a fine hermit."

This time it's Reimu's turn to snort. "No way. No matter what I did, Marisa would copy me and I'd be stuck with her. I can put up with her for fifty years, but I'd lose it after five hundred."

"I won't settle for less than eighty, ze. You gotta be greedy to make it in the modern world," Marisa retorts.

"If we're still here in eighty years, let's share a drink like this again," Sakuya says.

"Fine. And if you're not here, I expect you to leave me a bottle of sake in your will," Reimu replies. "And not the cheap stuff, either. Buy it now so it'll be vintage."

"You two take care of yourselves," the maid replies. "I wouldn't like to be sat here in eighty years, drinking alone."

The three toast mortality in the moonlight; and, before they have noticed it, the evening slips away from them forever.

* * *

 _A/N: One thing that surprised me when I tried to write Touhou stories before (the attempts at which will not see the light of day) was that every time Remillia appeared, I felt like some new depth was revealed to her. In this piece, I originally used Remillia as the instigator mainly as a way to involve Sakuya, but upon thinking about it, I realised that it made perfect sense. Although there are other youkai who would miss the human members of the cast if they died, none of them have the same closeness of relationship that Sakuya and Remilia have, and none of them have been faced with the issue as directly as Remilia was in the Trial of Guts. It's something that she has nobody to talk to about, and it makes sense that she'd want to reach out and try to find somebody, or anybody, who could relate to the problem. Ironically, her best bets are characters she barely ever interacts with - Keine will face the same problem with her students, and Mokou will have faced it previously in her life and will face it again with Keine. I feel like there's an idea in that for an unusual friendship/bonding story, but it'll have to sit._


	3. Levity

_Levity_

* * *

"Here you go. You get six shots. 250 points gets you a prize. Don't mess up," Fujiwara no Mokou said as she handed the balls to the shrine maiden. Overhead, fireworks continued to crackle; children tottered down the streets of the human village in their geta and kimono, and food sellers bawled over the hubbub of the crowd to sell their wares.

"I don't get this game," Reimu replied. Mokou sighed, as only somebody who has known long suffering can.

"It's skeeball, Reimu. Skeeball! The most popular imported game in Gensokyo, the craze that's sweeping youkai and human alike!" Marisa said, enthusiasm bubbling in every word. She sounded like a street corner hustler.

"I'll show you once how it's done. Watch," Mokou said, and took a step back from the lane. With practised movements she sent the ball soaring up the lane, dropping it neatly into a thirty point hole. She didn't bat an eyelid at her score, instead taking a long drag from her cigarette. There could be no doubt she'd aimed at the 30, and could have gotten the 50 if the fancy had taken her.

Reimu hefted the ball in her palm, appraising its weight. It didn't seem so different from her yin-yang orbs. Her aim was good from danmaku battles, too – surely she had an advantage. With a grin, she sent her first ball on its way. She grinned as it sailed, up the lane; she grinned as it neared the top; she grinned as it shot off the end of the ramp and through the air, landing six feet behind the alley.

"That was just a test shot," she said, and rolled the second ball. It puttered out before reaching the goals, sliding back down the slope to her like a faithful puppy. Four more balls followed in rapid succession, thrown hard, soft, curved, straight; four more misses were her reward. Her grin was still on her face, but it had hardened when she faced Mokou and declared:

"Again."

Six more balls were supplied, and within half a minute they were gone. Without words, the miko stretched out her hand for more ammunition.

Mokou watched, and spoke to Marisa in a quiet voice. "…Should I give her some pointers? I don't want her to get frustrated and wreck the table."

"Nah," the witch said, and touched the brim of her hat. "Reimu's a monster, ze... she's good at everything without trying. So she doesn't really know the buzz you get from failing and improving. It might not look like it, but I think she's having fun."

"Or you like seeing her fail for once."

"That's a dangerous rumour, ze… Still. Just once, I'd like to see how scary she could get if she practised something. It'd give me something to aim for, y'know?"

Fireworks crackled overhead, and the sound of festival drums beckoned the night. With a hard, unwavering grin, Reimu threw the balls up the alley; with a smile, her best friend watched her.

* * *

 _A/N: I don't know why, when given this prompt, my brain made the leap to skeeball, a game I've rarely played and rarely seen. Words move in mysterious ways sometimes. These aren't good so far, but I feel like they're getting a little easier to do in terms of putting words on paper, which is something at least._


	4. Economy

_Economy_

* * *

Yukari watched her, hiding a Cheshire grin behind a Japanese fan. Very few people ever bothered to watch Reimu do anything, because to all outward appearances she barely did anything at all. To her energy was a resource, to be hoarded and spent only when wise. In her, sloth and talent had joined forces to create efficiency; she moved only as much as necessary, never an inch more. She measured out her words as if they were in limited supply, because she couldn't be bothered with long conversations. Even the youkai around her seemed hand-picked to suit her whims – it had not escaped Yukari that, between herself, the gossipy tengu and the omnipresent Suika, Reimu might well have the best information network in Gensokyo (for a human, at least).

There was something fascinating to Yukari in that thought – the idea that the powerful youkai that flocked to the Hakurei Shrine for tea and parties weren't actually unwanted guests, but were being manipulated imperceptibly. Moreover, the idea that she might be among the victims was simply enthralling. Of course, it wasn't the case. Reimu was still a flat-chested little girl, living the life of a hermit in a disused shrine with monsters for company. But there was still that knife-edge of potential there, beautiful and dangerous. Yukari could imagine it: an older Reimu whose hair was greying, her joints too rickety for battle, keeping the peace by levering past alliances and the fear of the name Hakurei.

And the more Yukari thought about it, the more she realised she wanted it. A shrine maiden after her own image, youkai and humans fighting a very social kind of war. A self-sufficient system, that wouldn't need a gap youkai to provide the occasional discrete intervention. An infinite expanse of blissful sleep. Yes, that was really what she wanted – peace, for herself first and everybody else as a happy by-product. It was just a matter of setting up the pawns. An efficient kind of laziness.

"You're staring," Reimu said, lowering her broom. The steps of the shrine were only half-swept. The miko was fastidious about cleaning, because it was more effort to clean one big mess than ten small messes.

"I was just thinking," Yukari said, "that you should have been born in the outside world. Everything is about convenience on the outside. They have machines – shikigami – to make everything as effortless as possible."

"What about you? You're lazy. If 'machines' save so much work, why not bring some of them here?" Reimu said, with a scowl. _Or better yet, just stay on the outside_ , was what her look said.

Yukari's smile widened. The reason she loved manipulating people was that, if you were good, it took barely anything at all. Just the right words, in the right way.

"Actually, Reimu, I already have something like that in Gensokyo."

"You do?"

"Of course," Yukari replied, her voice contented and peaceful in a way that the shrine maiden could only envy. "I call it 'society'."

* * *

 _A/N: I took a break from this for a little while to try writing something longer, then realised why I was having trouble and immediately started another project to try and correct that. As I try to write around Reimu, I start to understand more and more that she's not really a character I would want to base a story around by herself, since she's not very dynamic, but is more of a character who sheds interesting light on other things. Maybe I'm wrong and can get a better understanding at some point, though._


End file.
